


romantic surpluses

by twistedsky



Series: the soulmate project [3]
Category: Zoo (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-22 22:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4853267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/pseuds/twistedsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most people only have one name—maybe two or three at the most, if they’ve got a mix of platonic and romantic soulmates.</p><p>Jamie Campbell has four names.</p>
            </blockquote>





	romantic surpluses

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of canonical murder. 
> 
> This doesn't have a super solid narrative, as it's more a collection of moments that lead to a happy ending.

_jamie_

Most people only have one name—maybe two or three at the most, if they’ve got a mix of platonic and romantic soulmates.

Jamie Campbell has four names, which is pretty damn special.

She doesn’t have much time to ruminate on this though, because she spends most days worrying about her mother, and then even more days plotting her revenge against Reiden.

There’s a mix of genders on her body, and she’s never much thought about that, because she doesn’t spend much time thinking about love.

She dates, but it rarely means much at all, and when the relationships end, it’s not too unnatural, because in the world they live in, most people are just biding their time until they meet their soulmate.

Jamie’s biding her time until she takes down a multi-national, billion dollar company. It’s a little different, but it means just as much to her.

She can see it in her dreams—she visualizes it like most people visualize their short and long term goals, because that’s how you force your dreams into reality, or so she’s been led to believe.

That’s how she became a journalist, and how she got out of the small town that killed her mother.

This is how she does everything.

~~

The name _Mitch Morgan_ is curled over her left breast, and when she was younger, it was lucky she didn’t exactly want to wear a bikini and go to the pool, because it’s not exactly easy to hide without a shirt. To be fair, most of the names aren't.

When she’s doing research about Reiden, and she heads off to the zoo where the autopsy of the animal that had reacted oddly and violently is being done, she’s so focused on the details of that that she ignores pretty much everything else, including the fact that the name of the veterinary pathologist has his name imprinted on her skin.

She finds a zoo employee, who points her straight toward him.

“So, what do you think happened to the lion?” she asks, and the man looks up at her and laughs.

“I couldn’t tell you,” he says, “Especially since I haven’t done the autopsy yet.”

He has the lion in his hands, and she should know better, but she’s jumpy.

She feels like she’s closer than she’s ever been, and she doesn’t know how to stop now.

Jamie leans against a railing. “I’d like to talk to you about your findings—you know, once you find them,” she says, feeling a little ridiculous. She’s a journalist, and she forges ahead awkwardly, but she always gets what she wants.

The vet sighs, “Fine, but you’re going to have to help me get this lion back to the lab,” he says.

“Of course,” Jamie says, sliding through the bars and practically skipping over to him in excitement. “I’m Jamie Campbell,” she says, holding out her hand to shake his.

The man looks at her strangely. “I’m Mitch,” he says, and he takes off a glove and reluctantly shakes her hand.

“Mitch what?” Jamie asks, feeling an odd sinking sensation.

“Mitch Morgan,” he says, “And you’re Jamie Campbell. Huh.”

Well, she thinks, that makes for some interesting timing.

~~

He doesn’t seem any more interested in her than she is in him—which means, of course, that she finds him interesting, and probably useful, but she’s not exactly going to fall into his arms and declare him her soulmate.

She wonders if he has other names on his body too, and if any of theirs line up.

She doesn’t ask, because she’s not sure she even wants to know the answer.

“So, if you see anything weird, or if you find out anything, please let me know,” Jamie says, handing over her phone number.

He accepts, and bites his lip and smiles slightly. “That’s not usually how it goes when I get a girl’s phone number,” he says, but it’s not quite flirting.

Jamie smiles.

Maybe, after all of this, she couldn’t imagine—but no, she reminds herself.

She needs to stay focused on her endgame, because she doesn’t have anything else left her in her life. She’s been fired from her job, and basically evicted from her apartment, and she doesn’t have anything else left.

~~

Jamie sees her name on the back of Mitch’s neck, verifying the fact that they are indeed supposed to be important to each other.

There are much more important things though, and Jamie doesn’t let herself forget that.

They search for answers, and when she feels him pulling back she pours the last of her money into a plane ticket home, hoping to appeal to the heart that has to be beating within Mitch Morgan.

“Please,” Jamie says, pleading with him. She feels seconds away from tears, but she presses on, and barely holds them back. “Help me.”

Mitch looks at her carefully. “One last chance,” he says, agreeing to go see the senator she knows.

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work out.

~~

_mitch_

Mitch just wants to drink and drink—it’s a bad habit veering on self-destructive tendency, but he’s lived enough of his life to have come to terms with the worst of himself.

He’s okay with it. Or, if not okay, then at least comfortable wallowing in it. 

He watches Jamie walk away, and he almost feels guilty.

This woman cares deeply—too deeply for his tastes, which makes him wonder how her name could possibly be imprinted on his skin.

She’s too compassionate, and he’s a callous veterinary pathologist who couldn’t hack human connection in med school or his marriage.

He doesn’t want to believe in anything, because that’s just not who he is.

There’s no hope, and none of this matters.

He’s never going to see Jamie Campbell again, and that’s just fine.

And then a man approaches him, and everything changes.

~~

_abraham_

Abraham wonders often if his birth name is on the bodies of these people whose names curl around the contours of his body.

Then, he meets Jackson.

They connect almost instantly, even though Jackson’s too reckless, and it worries Abraham to no end.

But then, Abraham looks at the soft _Abraham Kenyatta_ on Jackson’s hand, and he lets himself trace the letters to calm himself down after a close call, then berates Jackson until he promises to be more careful next time.

“Next time,” Abraham sighs, “Must there be a next time?” he asks, and Jackson just smiles.

“I’d stop if I could,” he says, and changes out of his bloody clothes.

 _Jamie Campbell_ curls around Jackson's belly button _, Mitch Morgan_ stitches up his left side, and _Chloe Tousignot_ curls around his throat to his neck, refusing to be ignored.

Those same names are on Abraham, and he often wonders if that means that they’ll be a simple group of friends bonded together through some (as of yet) unseen disaster.

When he looks at Jackson, he feels something deep and heavy, and it’s impossible to determine what it is.

It becomes a bit more decipherable the first time Jackson places his hands on either side of Abraham’s face and presses his lips against Abraham’s.

It’s quick and almost celebratory, but quickly slides into something more when Jackson pulls away and sees what he’s done.

Jackson’s impulsive like that, and it’s simultaneously one of Abraham’s favorite and least favorite things about him.

~~

“My Rafiki,” Abraham sighs, almost delirious. “I think I am dead.”

“No, you’re not,” Jackson says, almost _screams_ , “You’re going to be fine.” He taps his finger along Abraham’s sternum, like he does sometimes in bed, but now it feels like some sort of nervous exercise.

“I thought you were dead,” Jackson whispers, pressing his forehead against the side of Abraham’s face, and Abraham half-deliriously thinks that his legs must hurt from the squatting by now.

“As did I,” Abraham answers back, and Jackson lifts his head to kiss Abraham’s cheek.

“I love you,” Jackson says, and Abraham smiles.

Abraham looks around the room then, and his eyes land on an unfamiliar face.

There’s a girl with Jackson. She’s pretty, and she won’t stop staring at him.

She takes his hand kindly, even though they don’t know each other. “You’ll be okay,” she says, then whispers something else in French.

He's not entirely sure what it means, but when she says, "My name is Chloe Tousignant," he thinks he understands the meaning of it. 

~~

_chloe_

Chloe’s never been all that interested in the names on her body.

She’s never put any stock in soulmates.

She’s not a romantic, and she’s a practical woman.

She follows her heart, but only so far as it makes sense.

Then, her fiancé cheats on her with her sister, and she goes on her honeymoon to Botswana by herself and almost gets murdered by lions, and something inside of her feels like it’s snapping.

She’s not entirely sure she recognizes herself.

Becoming an agent had been a practical, while dangerous decision. She’d determined that the benefits had outweighed the risks, and there she was.

She feels something inside of her shifting and changing.

She’s just met a man whose name is written against her right palm, and now she’s met Abraham, whose name curves along her left ankle.

She’s not sure what she’s supposed to do with this information any more than she’s sure what to do with the fact that lions are apparently acting strangely, and most certainly trying to murder humans instead of simply wanting to eat them.

The whole world is upside down, and after all of this is done, she’s going home, where everything’s going to make sense again.

Yes, this is her plan.

~~

_jackson_

The world is a disaster, and the animals all want to kill them, and somehow in the midst of all of this, Jackson is sitting in a room with all four of the people whose names are imprinted on his body.

This, he imagines, is why they’re all there.

He can’t imagine a situation in the five of them could have all met outside of this one, terrible thing.

As Chloe’s lists off their names, introducing them to each other, he carefully looks at the faces of the others.

Mitch’s face is inscrutable. He’s likely used to hiding behind thick walls.

Abraham looks curious, which doesn’t surprise Jackson at all. In fact, he hides a smile.

Chloe’s face is stern, focused. They have a mission, and she doesn’t have room to get emotional about all of this.

Jamie looks halfway lost and halfway determined to pretend that she isn’t.

This, Jackson thinks, should be interesting.

~~

_jamie_

Jamie kills someone— _murders_ them, and even though it’s self-defense, she thinks she’s going to hate herself for this for a long time.

Jackson grabs her arm and they grab the body, dragging it off and hiding it somewhere it won’t be found for at least a few days, and they get out as soon as possible.

They’re at the airport before Jamie vomits in the airport trashcans.

She feels sick to her stomach.

She’s a murderer. She’s a killer.

“You did what you had to do,” Jackson says softly, reaching out to pull her hair away from her face in case she vomits again.

She doesn’t know what else could come out of her stomach, but she appreciates the gesture.

Jamie breathes deeply, closing her eyes and trying to steady herself.

“This isn’t how I thought this would all turn out. I just wanted—“ hot tears burn down her cheeks. “I just wanted to avenge my mom. I just wanted to do the right thing.”

“I know,” Jackson murmurs, and he holds her hair with one hand and strokes circles on her back with the other. “I know.”

Jackson’s name is on her neck, and she knows he sees it now.

None of them talk about it, and she doesn’t want to start now.

He and Abraham seem to be a thing, Chloe seems to circle around them both, like she’s going to be swallowed into their relationship, making two into three.

They won’t become five, because that’s untenable.

How could you make a functioning relationship out of that?

Jackson keeps telling her that everything’s going to be okay, that they did what they had to, and Jamie lets herself listen to him.

She doesn’t believe him, but it’s nice anyway.

~~

_chloe_

When they acquire the mother cell, and Mitch talks about maybe being able to create a cure, they all celebrate. Well, most of them celebrate—Jamie sits in a corner sipping her beer, and she looks like she’s nearly buried under the stress of her actions. Chloe resolves to speak to her later, to try to help her find some sort of peace.

Today, there's hope, and maybe Jamie can find some solace in that. 

It's all that's holding Chloe together now, and she's sure she's not the only one. 

Maybe that’s the reason, maybe they drink too much, and get too happy, because she finds herself kissing Jackson, and then Abraham, and wonders if this is what was supposed to happen.

There’s too many of them, she thinks, for this to be some strange sort of fivesome.

She’s never heard of that many people in a romantic soulmate relationship before.

She thinks that would require too much of one’s heart, and she’s not sure she has enough of herself to give.

~~

_abraham_

He’s only told the story of who he once was to two people.

The first is Jackson, and the second is Jamie.

He’d told Jackson out of love, and the need to share his burden.

He tells Jamie out of kindness, out of compassion, to help her to understand the weight of it all.

Maybe, he thinks, she’ll find some sort of way to make peace with herself, even if she never forgives herself.

That is a conundrum he’s familiar with.

Jamie looks at him, wide-eyed, her eyes gleaming with tears unshed. She launches herself at him, hugging him tightly.

“Thank you,” she says, her voice raw with emotion.

He thinks of her name on his skin, and thinks that even if it weren’t there, he’d have told her.

That, more than anything else, surprises him.

These people have already become his friends in such a short time, and it surprises him how much that means to him.

~~

_mitch_

Mitch kisses Jamie on the flight back from Zambia.

He almost betrays them by trading the mother cell for his daughter’s life(and he’d do it again), but somehow perfect timing lets him see the truth of Reiden and escape their offices without capture.

But that, he thinks, feels like an eternity ago.

There’s an eternity in every day, in every new city they go to.

But now he’s here, on a plane with a cure and the leopard they’d used to make it, and all he can think about is the fact that he’s a pessimist forced into optimism.

He’s a cynic, and he’d rather always believe in the worst of things, but these people, especially _Jamie_ , make him believe, despite himself.

And so he kisses her, and then the world falls out from underneath him, and he’s proven right again: good things don’t happen.

He should have known better.

~~

_abraham_

He calls them family.

There’s love too—growing and shifting between them five of them, sometimes quickly, and sometimes slowly building individual connections between all of them, shocking them all.

If the world weren’t in the midst of an animal rebellion, then maybe they’d go on a talk show to talk about the uniqueness of their soulmate connection. Fivesomes are rare across all of history. 

Abraham would have little interest in that, even if it were an option.

He cares more for these people, with whom he’s somehow done the impossible.

They’ve changed the destiny of the world, it seems.

When the world returns to full operating order, Abraham hopes that things will be different.

He hopes, first and foremost, that this family they’ve built won’t fall apart without anything to hold it together.

And then, he hopes for the world. He hopes for compassion, and an ending to the cruelty that humans have visited upon the earth for far too long.

For now, in the arms of his loves, he hopes for time for both of those things.

He hopes for love.

~~

_jackson_

Jamie’s bickering with Mitch about his tie, and Jackson's pretending to be totally disinterested, but he’s hiding a smile.

He’s going on a talk show to talk about the importance of their new mission to create a more sustainable earth—that same earth that was almost taken from them, because they’d had the audacity to think it belonged only to them.

Abraham is begrudgingly reading over his talking points, and Chloe is busy going over their itinerary.

They’re traveling back to Botswana for awhile after this. They're fighting the battle on as many fronts as possible, because the fate of the world is in humanity's hands, and that's a big responsibility. 

Jackson gets why people are so reluctant to accept their own responsibility when it comes to the confrontation with the animals, but trying to kill animals that no longer have a directive to destroy humanity is the same kind of wild arrogance and selfishness that almost destroyed the human race.

Jackson looks at himself in the mirror, and fails at fixing his own tie.

Jamie comes over to help him then, and Jackson’s eyes fixate on the row of pictures along the wall near the mirror.

He looks at a picture of himself and his father for a moment longer than he probably should, and Jamie stands in front of him, tidying him and smiling. Jamie does the writing, preferring to leave the media appearances to the rest of them, which means that she looks far more comfortable than he does in the tie.

“I don’t see why we have to wear the ties anyway,” Jackson says, tearing his attention away from the picture of his father and refocusing his attention on Jamie, who just kisses him and pats his cheek.

“Because we’re trying to win people over, and the scruffy adventurer look, while hot, doesn’t inspire the kind of confidence we’re aiming at.”

“I just want this part to be over,” Jackson says, sighing, and Mitch and Abraham both echo their agreement.

“After we make a difference,” Chloe says then, “We can all go off the map, and never speak to anyone we don’t want to speak to ever again.” She says that, but they all know there's a lot of work to do before that happens. 

Mitch turns to her and smiles more broadly than Jackson thinks he’s ever seen him smile outside of when he’d discovered that Jamie was alive. “I’m holding you to that,” he says.

Chloe reaches over and strokes his arm. “Please,” she says, “Do.”

Jackson looks around at the people he loves most, and thinks about the names written on his body—the ones that he was always destined to know, always destined to love.

It's odd to almost feel grateful for a near apocalypse, but he is.

The world will be better for it, and so will he. 


End file.
